Replies

From your web page towards the bottom about the Pledge of Allegiance: "the separation clause which forbids government endorsement of religion in any way.."

You appear to be referring to the specific and particular separation clause that everyone is talking about.

I tried looking everywhere for that clause, including the US Constitution, but all I have been able to turn up is the old familiar "Congress shall make no law" in the 1st amendment. Nothing about separation though. I also observe that the federal government is barred from endorsing religion since that is not one of its enumerated powers. But that is not what you are talking about either.

So I'd like to know where I can find "the separation clause which forbids government endorsement of religion in any way," that you mention. Can you direct me? Thanks.

You won't find it...(but you know that) We've got a constitutional right to a fair trial, but you won't find those words "fair trial" in the Constitution. We have the separation between church and state...even though those precise words aren't in the Constitution. Logical deductions, research, the words of Jefferson and Madison will make the obvious, obvious. And no, the clause wasn't written solely as a response to the creation of the Church of England. The Founding Fathers were a bit smarter than that. Dig a little deeper on my site, and you'll find some interesting stuff about the "soldier and the priest", and why they ought never to be allied.

But all that is moot. Just as we have the freedom to practice the religion that pleases us, so do we have the freedom to "not" practice a religion. No government has the right to pass a law making an atheist swear allegiance to someone's God, let alone a State. That is wholly in contrast to the individual freedoms our government is sworn to uphold.